MATTHEW BARNEY SUES BJÖRK

April 06, 2015

Björk‘s ex Matthew Barney, just filed a lawsuit over the custody of their 12-year-old daughter, Isadora. The complaint, filed against Björk Gunmundsdottir, Barney claims that he is not getting his fair share of time with daughter Isadora, and that the couple’s daughter would prefer to split her time evenly with both parents. In the suit, reports Page Six, the artist accuses Björk of:

“effectively sacrificing Doa’s [Isadora’s] emotional well-being in favor of her own selfish desires”

The couple split in 2013 after some 13 years together. Barney also claims that Björk’s..

“self-focused mindset . . . flows, in part, from her belief that as Doa’s mother, she has far greater rights than I do as Doa’s father; and, in part, from her insistence that I am solely to blame for the breakdown of our relationship and the end of our intact family.”

Björk’s has a widely-panned retrospective up at MoMA right now and she just released her new album Vulnicura, which has a 10-minute-long Barney-trashing track, Black Lake, including the line…

“family was always our sacred mutual mission/ which you abandoned.”

According to the suit, Isadora spends the fall in her mother’s native Iceland, then returns to NYC in the spring to attend St. Ann’s School in Brooklyn Heights. Björk splits her time between Reykjavik and New York. Matthew Barney was dating artist Elizabeth Peyton and as recently as December, he was rumored to be dating Sheryl Crow. (via Artnet)

DAMIAN LOEB, Little Miss Pink Tomato, 1995

UNDER THE (FIGURE) INFLUENCE @ PHILLIPS NEW YORK

August 24, 2014

September in New York is of course, back to school, Fashion Week, the fall season of Broadway, Chelsea gallery openings and art auctions, among other things. Philips‘ Under the Influence is a catch all name to sell some art. Not as blue chip as Christie’s and Sotheby’s but nonetheless a player, it’s always fun to see Phillips catalogue and estimates (and then check back to see what sold for what and what failed to sell at all.) I’ve cherry-picked my favorite figurative works from the latest hodgepodge collection of well-known (and lesser-known) names to make my own little curated exhibit that only exists here (…and The Wow Report) Although you won't see the uncensored Wolfgang Tillman's "Spitting on Dick" there.) You can see lots of other non-figurative (and non-pornographic) work, all 257 lots, here. What else do you have to do on a Sunday? OK, well then, get going.

ALEX PRAGER, Untitled (Face in the Crowd) Box Set, 2013

MATTHEW BARNEY, Cremaster 2: The Ballad of Max Jensen, 1999

DEBORAH KASS, 2 Silver Barbras (Jewish Jackie series), 1992

ANDY WARHOL, Self-Portrait (in Fright Wig), 1986

KEITH HARING, Two works: (i) Untitled (Zena at 17 Years), 1985; (i…, 1986

MIKE KELLEY, Untitled, from the Sublime (Study for Headache Napki…, 1983

WOLFGANG TILLMANS, spitting on dick, 1997

BJORK AND MATTHEW BARNEY SPLIT

September 16, 2013

It seems artist Matthew Barney and Bjork, his long time romantic partner, have split. Barney and Bjork have a daughter, Isadora. Barney, it appears is now romantically linked to painter Elizabeth Peyton. Barney and Peyton had a joint exhibition, The Blood of Two, at mega-collector Dakis Joannou’s Deste Foundation in Greece in 2009 and the show included several portraits of Barney by Peyton. Peyton is divorced from her husband, artist Rirkrit Tiravanija, who both show with Gavin Brown’s Enterprise and she also shows with Barney’s gallery, Barbara Gladstone in New York City. No fun these break-ups, but all are hugely successful and will presumably be fine. (photo of Bjork: Pacific Coast News, painting of Barney and self portrait: Elizabeth Peyton)